Magnificent 17th Century Maps To The Stars' Homes

by Stephen J. Gertz

 Unidentified Los Angeles rare book dealer offering celestial maps.

Here in Los Angeles you can't throw a rock without hitting a star. They're all over the place, a galaxy of celestial bodies drawn into the black hole that is The Polo Lounge at the Beverly Hills Hotel, where red giants, white dwarfs, red dwarfs, neutrons, and super giants orbit around lox and bagels, alfalfa spouts, and baby carrots. Some have exhausted their hydrogen core and their careers slowly extinguish; others remain Main Sequence and still pack a punch, astrofusion-wise.

Withal, there are so many stars that you need maps to know just where they rest in the firmament and what region of the universe they call home.

CELLARIUS, Andreas. [The sizes of the celestial bodies]
Corporum coelestum magnitudines.
Amsterdam, Schenk & Valk, 1708.
Original color with additions, including gold highlights. 440 x 515mm.
'The sizes of the celestial bodies, with borders filled with putti.

Fortunately, a collection of star maps from Andreas Cellarius' Atlas Coelestis; seu Harmonia Macrocosmica, the only celestial atlas to be produced in the Netherlands before the nineteenth century, has just come into the marketplace.

CELLARIUS, Andreas. Scenographia Systematis Copernicani.
Amsterdam, Schenk & Valk, 1708.
Original color with additions, including gold highlights. 440 x 515mm.
'The Scenography of the Copernican world system', showing a human-faced
Sun at the centre of the Solar System, lighting the sides of 'Earths', positioned
at each equinox, three of which show California as an island. The four corners
are filled with angels, putti and allegorical figures.

A compilation of maps of the Ptolemaic universe and the more modern theories of Copernicus and Brahe, the Atlas Coelestis remains the finest and most highly decorative celestial atlas ever produced. Engraved by Jan van Loon, a mathematician and engraver who contributed charts and maps to various pilot books and sea atlases by Jacobsz, and Robijn, and originally published by Jan Jansson in 1660, these plates come from Schenk & Valk's reissue of 1708.

CELLARIUS, Andreas. [Southern Celestial Sphere]
Haemisphaerium Stellatum Australe aequali spahaerum propotrione.
Amsterdam, Schenk & Valk, 1708.
Original color with additions, including gold highlights. 440 x 515mm.
A celestial chart showing 'The southern stellar hemisphere with equally
 proportioned spheres'. It shows the classical constellations superimposed
over a globe on which can be seen the Americas.

"The highpoint of celestial atlas production…and the volume that ranks with Blaeu's Atlas Maior and Goo's Ze Atlas is Harmonica Macrocosmica…by Andreas Cellarius.

CELLARIUS, Andreas.
Haemisphaerium scenographicum australe coeli stellati et terrae.
Amsterdam, Schenk & Valk, 1708.
Original color with additions, including gold highlights. 440 x 515mm.
A beautiful chart of the southern skies with the classical constellations
superimposed over a globe showing South America, southern Africa
and 'Terra Australis Incognita'. The title banners are held aloft by grotesques
and in the bottom corners are astronomers surrounded by instruments
including an astronomical telescope.

"Published by Jan Janson in Amsterdam in 1660, the atlas comprises some 29 star charts and diagrams which portray varying celestial and planetary systems, orbits, and theories.

CELLARIUS, Andreas.
Haemisphaerium Stellatum Borealecum Subiecto Haemisphaeio Terrestri.
Amsterdam, Schenk & Valk, 1708.
Original colour with additions, including gold highlights. 440 x 515mm.
A beautiful chart of the Northern skies, depicted on a globe held up by
Atlas and Hercules. The constellations are superimposed over a globe
on which much of the Northern Hemisphere can be seen, including
the British Isles, Arabia, Borneo, Japan and parts of Canada.
In the top corners the title is on banners under trumpets blown by angels.
In the background are figures representing classical astronomers.

"Little is known of Cellarius besides the information provided within the atlas, that he was a Rector of the Latin School at Hoorn, 20 miles north of Amsterdam..

CELLARIUS, Andreas. [Celestial chart of Tycho Brahe's theories of the Universe]
Planisphaerium Braheum, sive structura Mundi Totius, ex hpyothesi
Tychonis Brahei in plano delinieata.
Amsterdam, Schenk & Valk, 1708.
Original color with additions, including gold highlights. 440 x 515mm.
A beautiful celestial chart depicting the planisphere of Brahe, or the structure
of the universe following the hypothesis of Tycho Brahe drawn in a planar view.

"The format of most engravings is similar - a sphere occupying the sheet top to bottom within which the diagram or chart is positioned, allowing up and down each side, decoration of an instructional, symbolic or purely aesthetic nature.

CELLARIUS, Andreas. [Celestial chart showing the Phases of the Moon]
Typus selenographicus lunae phases et aspectus varios adumbrans.
Amsterdam, Schenk & Valk, 1708.
Original colour with additions, including gold highlights. 440 x 515mm.
A celestial chart showing a 'Selenographic diagram depicting the varying
phases and appearances of the Moon by shading.' At the centre is the earth,
surrounded by the different phases of the Moon.

"The Cellarius charts, issued in 1660, 1661, 1666, and 1708 (as here), occasionally appear on the market and can be found in superb, bright, original colour, highlighted with gold, making them highly decorative items.

CELLARIUS, Andreas.
Haemisphaerium Stellatum Australe antiquum.
Amsterdam, Schenk & Valk, 1708.
Original color with additions, including gold highlights. 440 x 515mm.
A beautiful celestial chart of the stars as known to the Ancients,
with the classical constellations.
The borders contain the titles on banners and several putti.

"The later edition of 1708 has the imprint of of the publishers Valk and Schenk on each engraving..

CELLARIUS, Andreas.
Coeli Stellati Christiani Haemisphaerium Prius.
Amsterdam, Schenk & Valk, 1708.
Original color with additions, including gold highlights.  440 x 515mm.
A beautiful celestial chart of the constellations, depicting them not in the
traditional Greco-Roman figures but in Christian imagery as envisaged
by Julius Schiller in 1627 in an attempt to make the iconography of the
stars more relevant to his day. Thus the Zodiac is represented by the
Twelve Apostles and Pegasus has become Gabriel. All the figures are
shown face on, because Schiller thought it would be an indignity to have
them show their backsides. His changes did not catch on, causing him
often to be ridiculed, but when they were published his charts were the
most accurate available.

"...The elegant title page represents fully the contents of the book. each of the charts is well-designed, well-engraved, and often…is in fine original colour heightened  in  gold" (Potter, Collecting Antique Maps, pp. 173-74).

CELLARIUS, Andreas. [The Universe according to Ptolemy]
Situs Terrae Circulis Coelestibus Circundatae.
Amsterdam, Schenk & Valk, 1708.
Original color with additions, including gold highlights. 440 x 515mm.
A beautiful chart representing the Ptolemaic notion of the static Earth
at the center of the rotating universe.

On the title page, "The Muse of Astronomy, Urania, is surrounded by scientists, mathematicians and astronomers and celestial globes and observation equipment. At lower right a bound volume is typical of the fine red morocco binding with gold embossing, used in Amsterdam at the time.

CELLARIUS, Andreas. [Scenography of the Ptolemaic cosmography]
Scenographia systematis mundani Ptolemaici
Amsterdam, Schenk & Valk, 1708.
Original color with additions, including gold highlights. 440 x 515mm.
A beautiful celestial chart showing Ptolemy's theory of the Universe.
At the centre is the Earth, showing its eastern hemisphere, being circles
by the sun and planets, with the Zodiac.

"Two cherbus hold aloft the book's title on a banner whilst another couple, using cross-staffs, study the zodiacal signs of Libra and Virgo" (ibid).

It's highly unlikely that, while driving on Sunset Blvd. in Beverly Hills or Bel Air, you will encounter a rare bookseller hawking Andreas Cellarius's magnificent star maps from the curb. But if falling star Sylvester Stallone's career finally lands with a thud, you may see him on the corner of Sunset and Beverly Drive spinning a sign offering these star maps as if hustling apartment rentals or discount income tax preparation.

Twinkle, twinkle.

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Title-page to 1660 first edition.

CELLARIUS, Andreas. Harmonia macrocosmica: seu, Atlas universalis et novus : totius universi creati cosmographiam generalem et novam exhibens : in quâ omnium totius mundi orbium harmonica constructio, secundum diversas diversorum authorum opiniones, ut & Vranometria, seu totus orbis coelestis, ac planetarum theoriæ, & terrestris globus, tam planis & scenographicis iconibus, quam descriptionibus novis ab oculos ponuntur : opus novum, antehac nunquam visum, cujuscunque conditionis hominibus utilissimum, jucundissimum, maxime necessarium, & adornatum. Amstelodami: Apud Gerardum Valk & Petrum Schenk, 1708.

Fourth edition. Folio. 29 double hand-colored engraved plates.

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Chart images courtesy of Altea Gallery Antique Maps of London, currently offering these splendid charts, with our thanks. Today's header image is most certainly not of its proprietor, Massimo De Martini.

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When the Heavens Converted to Christianity

by Stephen J. Gertz

Engraved title page: The Christian Firmament:
The twelve apostles, formerly the twelve signs of the Zodiac

Has this ever happened to you? You go to bed, and the patterns formed by celestial bodies in the night sky are as they have been since ancient times: Orion's Orion, Capricorn's Capricorn; Ursa Minor's Ursa Minor, Cygnus is Cygnus.

But when you wake up in the morning Orion is Joseph, father of Jesus; Capricorn is St. Simon the Zealot; Ursa Minor is Solomon's Crown; and Cygnus is St. Helen, who I've never heard of aside from her role as Angry Volcano in The Washington State Story. The constellations have undergone an identity crisis; who's who, what's what? You don't recognize the fifty-four you're familiar with.

I hate when that happens. And, apparently, so, too, did people one day in 1627.

Constellation IX: St.Helen, formerly Cygnus.

At that star-crossed time, Julius Schiller (1580-1627), a lawyer - a lawyer! - and cartographer from Augsburg, Germany, published Coelum stellatum Christianum (Christian Starry Heavens), an atlas of celestial maps. Within, Schiller  replaced all of the pagan constellations named after the signs of the Zodiac and figures from Greek mythology with those from the New Testament and Christianity. The twelve zodiacal constellations, for example, were renamed for the twelve apostles - Taurus the Bull became St. Andrew, etc. Eridanus became the Red Sea; Argo became Noah's Ark; and Andromeda became the Sepulcher of Christ. A massive, forced conversion had taken place.

Constellation VII: The Three Kings, formerly Hercules.

That the heavens of God and Christ were corrupted by pagan influence was too much to bear; something had to be done.

Constellation I: St. Michael the Archangel, formerly Ursa Minor.

Schiller’s new system, however, was too radical a change and never gained acceptance and traction; the constellations had been doing just fine for two thousand years and the religious imperative was not felt by contemporary scientists - nor anyone else, for that matter. excepting the  Jesuits and highly pious members of the laity. It's similar to the failure of the metric system in the U.S.: Despite the Metric Conversion Act of 1975, we like our ounces, pounds, quarts, inches, and miles, thank you very much, they work. Now leave us alone. Take your liters and leave.

Constellation XIX: St. Gabriel the Archangel, formerly Pegasus.

But Coelum stellatum Christianum was valuable for other reasons beyond trying to wrest the stars out their pagan context and place them in accordance with Christian theology. Twenty-four years after Johann Bayer's Uranometria (1603) - at the time, the best star atlas - was published, Schiller corresponded with  Bayer and included corrections and additions to the stars and their positions. Coelum stellatum Christianum was, for instance, was first celestial atlas to include the Great Nebula in Andromeda. It was, upon its publication, the most accurate star atlas yet produced despite its biblical gloss.

Constellation Va: St. Sylvester, Pope, formerly Bootes.

The plates in Coelum stellatum Christianum are slightly smaller than those in Uranometria but presented in the same order.  A printed table lies opposite each map, and the stars are identified by Arabic numbers, rather than Bayer letters. Schiller provides two descriptions for each star, one referencing  the original pagan constellation figure, the other its new Christian identity.

Star chart I by Caspar Scheck.

"In considering Schiller's atlas it is convenient to distinguish between the scientific content and the religious orientation. Viewed simply as a collection of celestial maps it was the best available until Hevelius published his atlas 60 years later. Schiller was not himself an astronomer, but a cartographer who used the observations of others. His atlas, essentially a revision of Bayer's Uranometria, was based on the latest - the most extensive and the most accurate - astronomical information. Among his authorities were Tycho Brahe, Franciscus Pissero's revision of Tycho's catalogue as published by Grienberger, Galileo's telescopic observations of the Pleiades, and Simon Marius' telescopic observations of the Andromeda nebula. Kepler, it must be remembered, had not yet issued the expanded version of Tycho's catalogue and it was not apparent that he would ever do so (in fact, the Tabulae Rudolphinae appeared in the same year, 1627).

Star chart II by Caspar Scheck.

"Schiller's atlas was the outcome of the ideas and work of several men, extending over a quarter of a century. The need for a new atlas, with revised star positions and constellations, was argued by Bayer, Schiller, and Raymond Minderer, a doctor of medicine also at Augsburg. Bayer then undertook the astronomical revisions while Schiller, in correspondence with the Jesuit astronomers Johann Baptist Cysat, Paul Guldin, and Jesuits philologist and historian Matthew Rader, converted the Greco-Roman constellations into Judeo-Christian ones. Wilhelm Schickard, the astronomer and professor of Oriental languages at Tübingen, supplied the Arabic letters and star and constellation names. Kaspar Schecks positioned the stars on the copper plates, German historical painter Johann Mathias Kager drew the constellation figures, and Lucas Kilian engraved them. Finally Jakob Bartsch [Kepler's son-in-law] supplied various astronomical tables and, after Schiller's death, supervised publication" (Warner, D.K. The Sky Explored, pp. 229-230).

Despite Schiller's best efforts, ultimately the fate of Coelum stellatum Christianum and its Christianized constellations rested with the Old Gods. Their opinion was swift and stern.

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SCHILLER, Julius. Coelum Stellatum Christianum Ad majorem Dei Omnipotentis, Sanctaeq Eius fam Triumphantis quam Militantis Ecclesiae Gloriam. Onductis Gentilium Simulachris, eidem Domino et Creatori Suo, postliminio quasi restitutum, Humili Conatu et Voto. Julii Schilleri Augustani Vindel V.I.D. ; sociali opera Joannis Bayeri IC Uranometriam novam, priore accuratorem, locupletioremq suppenditantis Matthiae Kageri, picturam primo concinnantis ; scalpello, qua imagines Lucae Kiliani, qua stellas Casparis Schecksii. [Augsburg]: Augustae Vindelicorum, Praelo Andreae Apergeri, 1627.

First edition. Oblong folio. (12 1/4 x 14 1/2 in; 313 x 367 mm). [4], 134, [1, errata], [1, blank] pp. Engraved title page, fifty-one celestial maps including  biblical constellation figures engraved by L. Kilian after M. Kagerone, one  engraved plate (Arabica Nomina). Includes Jakob Bartsch's Tabulae constellationum synopticae and Tabula canonica, and updated states of Schecksius' star charts.

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Images courtesy of David Brass Rare Books, with our thanks.

The Linda Hall Library of Science, Engineering, and Technology has a Constellation Index of the originals and Schiller's Christian replacements along with digital reproductions of each of Schiller's maps.

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